Thirteen

1

Dark Red by Steve Lacy

To me, paradise is a trampoline gymnasium. The feeling of jumping the through air, feels like flying, but only safer. When you're in mid air, all your worries and thoughts suddenly disappear. For me, it's an escape. An escape from home, school and my thoughts. It's fucking bliss.

Walking into the gymnasium, it feels unusually... Quiet. There are no mats pulled out, less benches, and the background music has been turned off. But it's kind of peaceful.

I bend down to slip off my shoes and line them up against the wall, noticing how few shoes there are next to mine. Although I could only see two other people chatting in the corner of the gym, more voices are coming from the changing rooms and toilets, which puts me at ease slightly.

I stand up straight, pulling my unbrushed ginger hair into a tight ponytail with an old hairband I found at the bottom of my gym bag. Twisting and pulling the hairband about, I feel like it's going to snap at any second and give up on me. I pray that it stays in tact otherwise Coach Splinter will just give me an elastic band and it's absolute hell to get it out.

Although, his name isn't actually Coach Splinter.

It's an inside joke that only the kids call him, because he's an annoying prick.

I glance over to his office that has a huge clear window overlooking the gym, and I see his bald ass tapping away at his computer. He eventually looks up from his screen, a slight nod towards me, and gives a fat thumbs up. I return a nod back and walk towards the one big trampoline that has no one on it for once. I climb onto it and step off the blue spongey edging around the trampoline, immediately sinking down slightly. I'm yet to perfect my front flip, so I wonder if I should practice that.

But I wonder if I can jump high enough to touch the ceiling...

I position myself over the 'x' painted in the middle of the trampoline, tilting my head up. The ceiling isn't that far off.

I start with a little jump and find myself a rhythm, getting slowly high and higher with each jump, the familiar tingling feeling in my stomach coming back to me. Adrenaline courses through me with every jump, and my pony tail whips my neck every time I make contact with the trampoline. Thoughts start to disappear from my head. About mum, school, money, groceries. It all just disappears. Temporarily.

I'm so close to touching the ceiling that I push harder on each jump. I reach up and only just skim the roof with the tips of my fingers. I touch it so barely, I'm not sure if I've imagined touching it. As I fall back down to the ground, I jump as hard as I can, adrenaline flying through me, certain I'd touch it this time.

I look up, the ceiling nearing me, and someone turns the lights off.

It suddenly goes pitch black, and I'm unable to see anything. My heart drops, and so do I, as I plunge into darkness. I instinctively lift my legs up to land on my ass, bracing myself for impact. I hold my breath as I land on the trampoline again, relief coursing through my body, decreasing in height with each bounce until I stop. I exhale loudly and try to regulate my breathing, worried this has triggered another panic attack.

I'm actually going to choke whoever turned the lights off.

I don't bother trying to get up because it's so pitch black that I wave a hand in front of my face and still can't see anything. I hear movement around me but unsure where it's coming from. I strain my ears to figure out who or how many people are moving about in the dark, but not knowing puts me on edge and is not helping me stop my panic attack. All I can do is wait until Coach Splinter or someone turns the lights back on.

That's when the trampoline suddenly sinks down due to added weight.

Someone else is now on the trampoline.

They seem to be behind me because of the way the trampoline was stretched and sinking down, but when I turn around all I see is darkness. Maybe it is Coach Splinter and his fat ass? But that doesn't really make sense because surely he would be focused on turning the lights back on.

The person gets closer to me, the trampoline moving up and down with each step. My panic worsens because I can't even see them come towards me. The footsteps stop moving.

And then it goes silent.

A strong hand suddenly covers my mouth and grasps my jaw. I try to scream, but the fat fingered hand muffles any sounds that come out of my mouth. I claw at the hand, trying to pull it away from my mouth, my heart thumping fast and a different type of adrenaline going through me. The person tilts my head to one side, and a sharp prick stings my neck. Panic claws at my throat as I try to struggle free, but my strength feels like it's being drained out of me, and my racing thoughts start to blur together. My eyelids start to feel like they weigh a ton, and my limbs go limp.

I try to keep awake, but I physically can't stop myself falling asleep, falling into the darkness. . .

A/N
THANK YOU FOR READING THE FIRST CHAPTER 🫶‼️
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